PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

252Pacific Worldtsan. Hence, Shan-tao expounds theories that extinguishing karmicevil through saying the Name and that saying the Name constitutesrepentance. 43According to this, repentance is not taught in the San-shan-i becausethat chapter was intended to teach ordinary beings in the nine grades ofbirth—beings of inferior capacities who are unable to carry out the practiceof repentance. Indeed, principal, short, and extensive repentance, as wellas the three grades of repentance, would be difficult to accomplish forordinary beings of inferior capacities. However, as we discussed earlier,even if it might prove very difficult for them to accomplish repentance,Shan-tao asserts, if they thoroughly realize the true mind it would becomepossible. That is, he does not say that repentance would be completelyimpossible for ordinary beings to carry out. He simply states that it wouldbe undoubtedly difficult for ordinary beings to accomplish it. For thatreason saying the Name is explicated as the practice that corresponds to thecapacities of ordinary beings. Thus, it could be Shan-tao did not teach ofrepentance in this chapter because he perceived the limitations of that practice.This might also be inferred from the fact that Shan-tao purposelydeclined to place the statement, “‘non-meditative’ refers to abandoningevil and performing good” in the chapter devoted to non-meditativepractice. In addition, he declined to do so even though he considered thecombination of repentance (extinguishing karmic evil) and the practice (ofnon-meditative good) to be effective in leading the practitioner to birth, aswe have seen above. Shan-tao’s refusal to admit in the San-shan-i that nonmeditativepractice refers to “abandoning evil and performing good” wasprecisely because that concept came about through the direct influence ofrepentance. Having perceived the limitations inherent in repentance, hefound himself unable to advocate it in the San-shan-i. Hence, in order tourge beings to engage in non-meditative practice that would involve thesame activity of “abandoning evil and performing good” as repentance(without resorting to the practice of repentance), I believe that he had nochoice but to elucidate the two aspects of deep belief.The limitations inherent in the practice of repentance results from thefact that it was not established within the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha.The San-shan-i describes saying the Name as the practice that accords withthe capacities of inferior ordinary beings in the nine grades of birth. InShan-tao’s discussion of deep mind in the San-shan-i he mentions “establishingtrust in relation to practice.” There he elucidates the five rightpractices, and states that, among them, saying the Name is the “act of truesettlement.” This is based in the fact that “it is in accord with the Buddha’sVow.” 44 That is, the practice of saying the Name is substantiated by AmidaBuddha’s Primal Vow. These words, “because it is in accord with theBuddha’s Vow” would later bring Hønen to indicate his reverence for